Twenty-two undergraduate students are spending the summer at UNMC doing research.

They are called INBRE scholars and are part of the largest grant in UNMC history.

Today we feature Kaitlin Goettsch, a sophomore studying bioinformatics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Tell us about yourself. I am a Christian Iowa farm girl who was homeschooled through high school. My parents both graduated from Iowa State University with degrees in animal science, and my dad is a lawyer. I have five siblings, including one brother and four sisters. I am patient and persistent and love solving puzzles.

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The INBRE program

Twenty-two students from 11 different undergraduate and community college programs have joined the Institutional Development Award Program (IDeA) Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE)/ Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) program. The INBRE/BRIN program is overseen by James Turpen, Ph.D., a professor in UNMC's Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy, and principal investigator of the $17.2 million National Institutes of Health grant that supports the program.

Established in 2001, the INBRE program was created to expose students to serious biomedical research, build a statewide biomedical research infrastructure between undergraduate and graduate institutions and to strengthen undergraduate institution's infrastructure and increase its capacity to conduct cutting-edge biomedical and behavioral research.

The students, referred to as INBRE scholars, enter the program after completing their sophomore year of college upon recommendation by their college professors. The students are given a two-year scholarship and spend 10 weeks each summer conducting research on either their home campus or at UNMC, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln or Creighton University.

At the end of the summer the students attend the INBRE annual meeting where they will give an oral presentation.